


Pulling Out A Pattern

by Liadt



Category: Sapphire and Steel
Genre: Gen, evil!wallpaper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2014-12-29
Packaged: 2018-02-28 16:43:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2739671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liadt/pseuds/Liadt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They say damp records the past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pulling Out A Pattern

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Annariel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/gifts).



> For Annariel as part of Fandom Stocking 2014.

Sapphire and Steel were standing on a staircase of an old terraced house. The place smelt strongly of damp, decay and neglect. They were facing the wall looking at the wallpaper that had been pasted on it. The paper covered the wall, starting from the downstairs hallway and continued up the stairwell to the top floor. The wallpaper had an eye-wateringly, busy, floral pattern in shades of yellow, orange, cream and brown that the mould, that had grown over most of its surface, couldn‘t completely hide.

“Is this it then?” Steel indicated the wallpaper. “It appears it’s breaking all known rules of taste.”

“Even for the time period it came from it’s a particularly awful design,” agreed Sapphire. “Contact with humans must be having an effect on you, Steel. You’ve not shown an interest in interior design before.”

“I can’t ignore what my eyes tell me. How old is it?”

Sapphire put her palms out and concentrated for a moment. “The wallpaper? Nearly half a century.”

“Not that old.”

“The building is and there‘s an old saying here that says damp records the past.”

“If they had replaced the wallpaper when their society’s taste changed…” said Steel. With a pattern that busy, it was inevitable the emotional echoes of the place’s inhabitants would be caught up in its flowery repetitions, making it an attractive pressure point for Time to try to burst through.

****

Located on the third floor at the back of the terrace was a decent sized room. There wasn’t much in the way of furniture in the room. This didn’t mean the room was empty. There were an assortment of ornaments that had probably been scavenged from skips, piles of clothes and everyday items like hairbrushes and cosmetics. On a desk were cheap art materials and paper. Some of the sheets of paper had been drawn on. The walls were decorated with sketches and paintings. On a sofa, that doubled as a bed, lay Kellie Wharton. She was having a doze, because she had been working all night as a barmaid at a local nightclub. She was a slight girl of around fifteen years old, with long dark hair and a heavy fringe. She didn’t belong in this room - she was a squatter. No one seemed to know who did own the house, not even the council. They wanted to know whom they could inform that they were intending to pull the building down, for redevelopment. 

Kellie woke from her slumber. She could hear voices and went out onto the landing, to investigate. When she first arrived the squat was full of people, but she was the only regular resident left. When people came now they didn’t linger for more than a couple of days. Maybe that was how it was with squats, Kellie thought; you couldn’t count on anyone or anything lasting. 

“Hello!” called Kellie, down to the newcomers. There were two of them: a man and a woman both attractive with blonde hair. They were casually dressed. The woman wore a pale blue playsuit with an electric blue, satin jacket and her hair was up in a large bun. The man wore a grey jacket and skinny jeans. His hairstyle wasn’t fashionable, like the woman’s; it reminded Kellie of a mushroom.

“Are you the only one here?” asked Steel, in response to Kellie's greeting.

“Steel says ‘Hello.’ I’m Sapphire.” Sapphire smiled that reassuring smile of hers. 

“Cool names. I’m just Kellie. I tried to change it, but nothing would stick. You in a band then, with those names?”

“No, we’re Elements,” said Sapphire.

“Cool.” Kellie thought Sapphire was referring to some sort of cultural tribe, like Goths. “Are you moving in then?”

“You haven’t answered my question,” said Steel.

“There used to be lots of comings and goings, but not so much now,” said Kellie, vaguely. She trusted Sapphire for some reason, but she wasn’t so sure about Steel.

“Do you mind if we look around?” asked Sapphire.

“Nah. I don’t suppose you want to sit and stare at the wallpaper all day do you?”

“Don’t you like it?” enquired Sapphire.

“Mmm.” Kellie made a non-committal noise in the back of her throat. “I wouldn’t have chosen it, but it gives me ideas for my drawings.”

“You’re an artist?” said Sapphire.

“Yeah, wanna see?”

“That would be lovely.”

Kellie grinned broadly. “Then come on up.”

They all went into Kellie’s room and Sapphire and Steel sifted through her artwork.

 _Can you sense anything?_ said Steel telepathically to Sapphire.

_I can in some of the pictures, but not the others. ___

__Sapphire pointed at a stack of pictures she had separated from the rest. “These are very good.”_ _

__“That’s funny. You must be psychic or something. Those are my wallpaper pics. This one was inspired by a splodge that looked like a wolf and this by a big patch of mould. It was splattered with mud and it made it look like a Roman Army waving their swords. I have weird dreams about them too. I heard the clash of swords once. It might have been the bin men on bin day though.”_ _

_Time is using her, Steel._

_She can’t be the first with an overactive imagination to live here. What is she doing that’s different?_

“How do you get your inspiration? Do you while away your hours staring at the wallpaper?” asked Steel. 

__“It’s too cold to spend anytime out on the stairs, there’s no central heating. And if there were, it would have been cut off. When I come in, what I do is I run a knuckle along the radiators as I go on up. Like a kid would run a stick along the railings of a fence, minus the stick. I think of it as casting a spell for art. I do the same thing on the radiator on the top floor to close the spell. There used to be some witches here - they gave me a book on magic. Then I run as fast as I can up the stairs. I see more pictures in the paper if I don’t really look at it when I go up the stairs.”_ _

_Ritual and repetition. A pattern to draw out a pattern_ , thought Steel to Sapphire. 

__“I draw it all down when I get in my room. It helps me chill out, after working all night.”_ _

__“You’ll have to leave,” said Steel, bluntly._ _

_Steel, is there any point in getting rid of the girl? There will still be a weakness here open to misuse by Time._

__“You what? I ain’t going. What makes you think you can go round ordering people about?” snapped Kellie._ _

__“It’s not safe for you in this place,” said Sapphire._ _

__“You don’t say and I thought I had moved into Buckingham Palace,” Kellie said sarcastically._ _

__“We’ve come to seal a time break here. The gap must be closed or Time will enter and take everything, including you. If Time is allowed to do what it wants, it will change everything. Time is dangerous.” As Sapphire spoke, her outfit changed to a short dress, with a blue, fake fur stole and her hairstyle changed to a puffed out ponytail._ _

__“Are you actual real witches?” Kellie gasped and saw that Steel had also changed his clothes to his usual grey suit. Steel had been told that a suit would be an unwise choice of dress in this area, as many of the residents had a problem with authority. As Sapphire had changed her outfit, he saw no reason to stay in the same clothes. He felt more comfortable in the suit he had chosen for this form._ _

__“We aren’t witches. Steel and I are, what you might call, Time Agents. We come from outside of your time. If you want to stay here you’ll have to help us, by showing us what you do before you begin to paint one of your wallpaper pictures,” said Sapphire._ _

_Is that wise, Sapphire? The barrier is already very thin. It won't be long until Time can break through completely._

_Observing what she does will give us an idea of how Time is exploiting the girl’s creative energy._

__“Er, OK. Does that include the running up and down stairs stuff?”_ _

__“Yes,” said Steel._ _

__“I’ll go and do it then,” said Kellie, crossing over to the door._ _

__Sapphire and Steel watched her go down the stairs and run back up again, from the landing._ _

__“An eagle, I saw an eagle,” panted Kellie, as she ran her knuckle along the last radiator. She pushed past the two Elements, pulled a fresh piece of paper out of a pile next to her desk, and started sketching. Sapphire and Steel came back into the room and shut the door behind them._ _

__Kellie turned to them, when her drawing was complete. “Finished! Now what?” said Kellie, showing them her new artwork._ _

__“We wait,” said Steel._ _

__“It’s getting windy out there,” said Kellie, after sitting in silence for half an hour. She never expected meeting magical time-travellers to be so boring._ _

__“It’s not wind,” said Sapphire, walking to the door and opening it._ _

__“No?” said Kellie. She followed Sapphire, eager to see if anything interesting was happening._ _

__“Christ! An Eagle!” exclaimed Kellie. Embedded in the middle of the wallpaper, alongside the stairs, was a large bird of prey flapping its wings. Eventually the bird managed to pull itself free. It gave a cry and flew up at its observers with its claws outstretched. None of them needed to be told the creature wasn’t friendly. They all moved swiftly back into Kellie’s den, slamming the door shut on the bird. They could hear the eagle screeching and scratching on the other side of the door trying to get to them._ _

__“I thought people were leaving of their own accord, but it’s all my fault! My pictures chased them away or worse. I don‘t want that to happen to me, but I‘ve got nowhere else to go. If I don‘t draw any more will it make the house safe?” said Kellie, choking back a sob for her ex-housemates._ _

__“It might,” admitted Steel._ _

__“If you don’t see any more patterns,” added Sapphire._ _

__Kellie looked dejected. “It’d be easier to give up breathing.”_ _

__“There could be a way to trick Time,” said Steel._ _

__“How?”_ _

__“By setting a trap. Time relies on you seeing images in the wallpaper. Each thought you draw comes through the wall later and widens the break,” said Steel._ _

__“I’ll paint a picture of the wallpaper disappearing, if it’s relying on my thoughts.”_ _

__“It’s not that simple,” said Sapphire. “The picture you draw has to be inspired by something on the wall up the stairs. The other pictures you drew don’t have the same feel as the wallpaper ones. Time is manipulating the flowery pattern, so a new one will have to be put on the wall. It will have to be a strong pattern to draw the power out.”_ _

__Kellie was keen to get started and get back to normal again. “How about Opt-art? It’s different to the yucky, old, orange flowers. Geometric patterns make me cross-eyed. I expect it’ll give Time a headache too.”_ _

__“Do it,” said Steel, bluntly._ _

__“Steel would do it himself, but he lacks artistic flair,” said Sapphire._ _

__Steel gave Sapphire a look._ _

__“But he has other talents, I bet,” said Kellie, suggestively, as she dug out an old tin of paint._ _

__****_ _

__Out on the staircase, Kellie had spent the last few hours very carefully painting a spiral on top of the old wallpaper. She took a step back to admire her handiwork. “Done!”_ _

__“What can you see?” said Steel, standing on the stairs above her._ _

__Kellie looked up at him. “A big spiral. It reminds me of a whirlpool sucking in ships and that.” She turned back to her design. “Urgh! The mould has moved into the spiral I’ve painted. Is that Time?” Kellie had a flash of inspiration and painted a crude series of lines on top of the mouldy artwork. “It’s not a whirlpool anymore - it’s a cage. Take that Time - you won‘t scare off anymore of my mates!” Kellie then excitedly slopped black paint all over everything she had painted with her brush._ _

__In response, the paint fizzed._ _

__“You know what I see now? It’s all black - black’s death, nothingness, it’s all gone. There ain’t no angels. That’s it.”_ _

__The black paint bubbled and blistered._ _

__“Is it working?” asked Kellie._ _

__“You have to complete your ritual first to set it,” said Sapphire. “Do it soon or the paint will blister into a new pattern. If your unconscious mind sees a new pattern everything you’ve painted will have been for nothing.”_ _

__Kellie belted down to the front door, span round, ran her knuckle along the first radiator and came up the stairs as fast as she could. She ran the pictures she had just made repeatedly in her head. Darting into her room to her desk, she copied down all the images she had painted on the wall, in miniature, before painting the whole sheet black._ _

__“Do we wait like earlier?” Kellie asked the two Elements, who had also returned to the bedroom._ _

__Sapphire didn’t answer. She walked out and down the stairs. She stopped next to the black square of paint and carefully touched it. Pulling her hand away, she returned to the others to relate what she felt, after shutting the door behind her. “Time’s power has been blocked for now. It had been trapped, not destroyed. The paper must be destroyed - whatever happens in Kellie’s drawings it has to copy.”_ _

__“I’ve got a lighter,” said Kellie, snatching a cheap, plastic lighter off her desk. She set fire to the paper. As Kellie was crushing the burnt remains of her picture to dust, under her foot, she froze. She could smell smoke coming in from under the door and hear the faint crackle of a fire. “You tricked me! You said if I did this I could stay. I can’t live in a pile of ashes can I?” Kellie ran around the room shoving as many of her possessions as she could into a sports bag. “Thanks for nothing,” she said bitterly. Kellie went out on to the landing, dodged past the flames consuming the wallpaper and out on to the street. Soon the fire would spread to the rest of the house._ _

__“She could have destroyed the picture another way and stayed,” said Sapphire. Her voice was tinged with something that could have been interpreted as sadness._ _

__“It’s done now. This area is no longer a threat,” said Steel, as he and Sapphire faded away, like a pair of ghosts through the smoke._ _


End file.
